Winter's Fury

Winter's Fury is a partial conversion of twelve levels for Doom II and the GZDoom source port by Pyroscourge. It was released on December 7, 2012, days before it was named a winner at the 19th Annual Cacowards. Winter's Fury takes place in Siberia, in the year 2033, some time after the events of Doom II. The levels are based around a frozen theme, and the WAD's story is highly significant to the overall experience.

On December 7, 2022, on the 10th anniversary of its original release, an updated version of the mod was released containing assorted changes and improvements.

Development history
Development of "Winter's Fury" started in 2009. The first map was built from an older map named "Snow Moon", which was made during a speedmapping competition. On December 9, Pyroscourge started a thread on the ZDoom forums, sharing first details about the project. This was planned to be a GZDoom mod with eight maps, divided into three parts: part one with three maps (01-03), part two with three maps (04-06) and part three with two maps (07, 08). At that time only part one was in active development. On July 8, 2011, the first demo was released including part one with three levels.

On February 26, 2012, the second demo was released including a fixed part one and a new part two with six levels.

On December 7, 2012, "Winter's Fury" was released.

On December 19, 2012, version 1.1 was released.

On December 25, 2012, "Winter's Fury" was named a winner at the 19th Annual Cacowards. The review was written by Xaser, who praised the levels' highly detailed architecture with massive use of portals to give the player a real three-dimensional feel. He called it a "Torm Done Right".

On November 13, 2013, version 1.2 was released.

On March 28, 2016, another update was released.

On October 26, 2016, version 2016.5 was released, which included some bugfixes due to the release of a new version of GZDoom.

On December 7, 2022, the 10th anniversary update was released. Most maps were tuned up, while MAP07B was completely redone. The dialogue system was updated and all maps were converted to UDMF format.

The next Winter's Fury update was released on September 1, 2023, a few hours after the release of Insanity Edged.

Background
The story continues after the defeat of Baphomet at the end of Doom II. Demons still roam the Earth but without any order. UAC achieved new technological heights by using the Hellfire fuel, which leaks from Hell and demons themselves. Baphomet's remains were locked in the UAC facility called Aurora Vault, located beneath a mountain in . The mountain then became known as Mount Baphomet.

One day demons were sighted near the Aurora Vault's entrance. Several tactical assault operations (TAO) teams were sent to fight back. One such team included sergeant Elliott Morse, who is the protagonist of Winter's Fury.

Introduction
Winter's Fury starts at September 30, 2033, 15:00. A TAO team arrives at outskirts of Mount Baphomet. The team comprises: colonel A. Luke (leader), corporal M. Dirnberger, sergeant E. Morse, private W. Steel and several other marines. Colonel orders the team to split: Dirnberger and Alpha squad will proceed through the UAC facility to power node L-17, Delta squad will move to L-17 in APC by the road, while Morse and Steel are to stay back and establish the communications. After that others should meet with Alpha. There is also a special order to stay clear of the Aurora Vault and internal parts of Mount Baphomet. After the other marines left, the camera shows a strange icy creature hiding behind Morse and Steel.

An hour later, at 16:00, Morse loses contact with Alpha squad because of a hardware failure. He calls for Steel to fix it, but he is never to be found. Morse takes out a pistol and the mod begins.

Ice monsters
Ice-colored versions of Doom monsters are included to better fit the mod thematically. Most of them have very little differences from their original counterparts (excluding appearance) and have the same number of hit points. There are ice variants of: cacodemon, demon, mancubus, imp, Hell knight and lost soul.

Special variant of the baron of Hell. Has the same number of hit points (1000), but uses a different set of attacks. Sprites are based on the Archon of Hell custom monster, made by Eriance. Added into the mod in the version 1.2 (November 13, 2013).
 * Ice archon

Ice variant of a regular arch-vile. Has 1100 hit points and a different set of attacks. This monster used to be called "darkvile" and had more attacks, but they were cut.
 * Ice arch-vile

Ice variant of a regular revenant. Has the same number of hit points (300). Sprites are based on the Death Incarnate custom monster, made by Eriance.
 * Ice revenant

Void monsters
MAP07B: Void contains a special type of so-called void monsters. They have the same characteristics and look as their regular ice counterparts, but also have a complex behaviour, set by a script. Some of them stand still, some roam the area without seeing the player.

Bosses
Has 10000 hit points. Uses sprites of Cycloid Emperor from Duke Nukem 3D, but with the body colored red.
 * Azmodan

Depending on the difficulty skill selected, this monster has either 20000 (easy), 22500 (normal), or 25000 (hard) hit points.
 * Baphomet

Depending on the difficulty skill selected, this monster has either 6000 (easy), 7000 (normal), or 8000 (hard) hit points. Uses sprites of Alien Queen from Duke Nukem 3D, but with the body colored teal. Boss of MAP03.
 * Demon queen

Has 10000 hit points. Uses recolored sprites of Korax from Hexen.
 * Diablo

Depending on the difficulty skill selected, this monster has either 15000 (easy), 17500 (normal), or 20000 (hard) hit points.
 * Ice Baphomet

Depending on the difficulty skill selected, this monster has either 10000 (easy), 13000 (normal), or 16000 (hard) hit points.
 * Ice barrier cyberdemon

Depending on the difficulty skill selected, this monster has either 8000 (easy), 10000 (normal), or 12000 (hard) hit points.
 * Ice cardinal

Has 30000 hit points. Version of demon queen, but with а grey body and teal eyes. Two are encountered as bosses at MAP04A.
 * Ice queen

Has 3000 hit points. Uses sprites of maulotaur from Heretic, but with the body colored teal. Two are encountered at MAP07A.
 * Ice smith

Has 1000 hit points. Three are encountered at MAP07B.
 * Void phantasm

Other
Has six versions with different number of hit points: 5000 (unnumbered and 2), 999999999 (3 and 5), 99999999999 (4 and 6). Looks like a dark cloud. Acts as a supporting character. Darkness participates in several dialogues, and also can be found on many levels, often in unreachable locations.
 * Darkness

Custom weapons
Same as a regular fist, but creates sparks when punching walls.
 * Nano fist

Replaces the pistol. Does less damage (4-12 instead of 5-15) and has higher horizontal spread. Uses sprites from . Spawns a pistol case after each shot.
 * Nano pistol

Replaces the shotgun. Kicks enemies back. Does the same damage per pellet but shoots fewer pellets (6 instead of 7). Has reduced horizontal spread, but at the same time has vertical spread, which the original shotgun lacked. Uses sprites of the  shotgun. Spawns a shotgun case after each shot.
 * Nano shotgun

Replaces the super shotgun. Kicks enemies back. Does less damage per pellet (4-12 instead of 5-15) and shoots fewer pellets (18 instead of 20). Has reduced horizontal and vertical spread. Spawns two shotgun cases after each shot.
 * Nano super shotgun

Replaces the chaingun. Does less damage (4-12 instead of 5-15). Has reduced horizontal spread, but at the same time has vertical spread, which the chaingun lacked. Spawns a pistol case after each shot.
 * Nano machinegun

Replaces the rocket launcher. Does the same amount of damage. Uses sprites and sounds of its Doom 3 counterpart.
 * Nano rocket launcher

Replaces the plasma gun. Does less damage (4-32 instead of 5-40). The plasma ball's trail also does ripper damage.
 * Nano plasma rifle

Replaces the BFG9000. Uses 100 energy cells per shot (instead of 40) and does twice the damage (200-1600 instead of 100-800). The original BFG9000 tracers are removed; instead, after the main projectile explodes, it shoots several plasma balls in different directions, which will also inflict damage. This weapon can only be obtained once per playthrough in a secret area in MAP07B. Uses sprites of its Doom (2016) counterpart. It was called nano photon cannon and had different sprites in older versions of Winter's Fury.
 * Nano darkfire narrator

Picked up and automatically used only once - in MAP06B.
 * Remote teleportation

Custom items
A datapad containing a secret log. It is not counted as an actual secret, but rather a hidden piece of the lore.
 * Datapad

Replaces the regular berserk, but changes the effect to fire rate increase like Tome of Power from Heretic.
 * Nano berserk

Levels
Part I. "Exactly as planned": ''Part II. "A road often travelled is enough to be a hero":'' ''Part III. "The blizzard is just the calm before the storm":''
 * INTROMAP: Winter's Fury
 * MAP01: You Are Here
 * MAP02: Unexpected Losses
 * MAP03: Frostbite
 * MAP04A: Afterburn
 * MAP04B: Highway to Hell
 * MAP05A: D.A.R.K.ness
 * MAP05B: Cold Snap
 * MAP06A: Hypothermia
 * MAP06B: Cryophobia
 * MAP07A: Blizzard Conditions
 * MAP07B: Void
 * MAP08: Absolute Zero
 * CREDMAP: The End!
 * TITLEMAP: Winter's Fury

Soundtrack

 * INTROMAP: no music
 * MAP01: "Protectors" by, from 
 * MAP02: "Absolute Zero" by, from 
 * MAP03: "StemCell" from Community Bonus Pack 2 for Unreal Tournament 2004
 * MAP04A: "Main Theme" from  and "Against All Odds" by Ari Pulkkinen, from Shadowgrounds
 * MAP04B: "Serenity" by Kevin Riepl, from Unreal Tournament 2004
 * MAP05A: "Caution" from Ultimate Community Map Pack for Unreal Tournament 2004
 * MAP05B: "Clockwork" from Community Bonus Pack 2 for Unreal Tournament 2004
 * MAP06A: "Mind Storm" by, from  album
 * MAP06B: "Weapons of Mass Distortion" by, from  album
 * MAP07A: "CwP-24cmis" from Community Bonus Pack 1 for Unreal Tournament 2004
 * MAP07B: no music
 * MAP08: "Total Metal Jacket" by Ari Pulkkinen, from Shadowgrounds, and "The Wings of Icarus" by featuring, from  album
 * CREDMAP: "" by, from  album
 * TITLEMAP: "Better-Luck-Next-Time" from Community Bonus Pack 2 for Unreal Tournament 2004

Difficulty settings
Winter's Fury uses MAPINFO to define a new set of skill levels that function differently to the original Doom. Difficulty settings are shown for the latest version (2022).


 * Frozen
 * The easiest skill level. The player takes only 80% of normal damage and picking up ammo gives 130% of the usual amount. Things with the skill 1 flag will appear on this difficulty. This is an equivalent of "I'm too young to die".


 * Frostbite
 * On this skill level, the player takes normal damage, and receives normal ammo. Things with the skill 2 flag will appear on this difficulty. This is an equivalent of "Hey, not too rough". The name of this skill level is also used for MAP03.


 * Hypothermia
 * This is the medium skill level. Again, the player receives normal amounts of damage and ammo. Things with the skill 3 flag will appear on this difficulty. This is an equivalent of "Hurt me plenty". The name of this skill level is also used for MAP06A.


 * Cryophobia
 * On the fourth skill level, the player takes normal damage, but monsters are more aggressive than usual (aggressiveness 0.8). Things with the skill 4 flag will appear on this difficulty. This is an equivalent of "Ultra-Violence". The name of this skill level is also used for MAP06B.


 * Darkness
 * The hardest skill level. This difficulty is hidden on the skill selection menu, and with good reason. While the thing placement is the same as on Cryophobia, the player now takes 200% damage, and monsters are even more aggressive than on Cryophobia (aggressiveness 1.0). Cheat codes are disabled, and fast monsters are in effect. This is an equivalent of "Nightmare!"

Series
A prequel to Winter's Fury, named S.U.P.E.R. Natural was announced in 2013. In 2014 Pyroscourge posted a demo version at Doomworld forums. In 2020 they commented in the same thread that work on the mod had some troubles in 2016-2017 due to big changes in GZDoom engine and finishing it would require time.

Another WAD in the same series as Winter's Fury is Insanity Edged. Its first version under name Insanity's Edge was to idgames back in 2009. In December of 2022 Pyroscourge posted some information and images of new renamed version of the mod and said that final version will be ready in around 2 months.